Many different types of semiconductor optical emitting devices are known in the art, including surface emitting lasers and light emitting diodes. Some of these devices utilize gallium nitride (GaN) to form an active semiconductor structure for light generation. Surface emitting lasers and laser diodes based on GaN have come into widespread use in numerous applications, including traffic lights and other types of solid-state lighting, indoor and outdoor electronic displays, backlighting for liquid crystal displays, and many others. These GaN-based devices have a number of significant advantages, such as good optical beam characteristics and ease of batch fabrication and packaging. Other types of semiconductor optical emitting devices provide similar advantages using other semiconductor materials.